Vs. 6-11.--The "sea of glass before the throne" is a symbol taken from the "brazen sea" in the temple, in which priests and victims were to be washed. (Exod. xxx. 18; 1 Kings vii. 23.) This sea represents the same thing as the "fountain opened," (Zech. xiii. 1,) which denotes the atoning and cleansing blood of Christ. (Ch. vii. 14.) All who offer "spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God," must first be washed; for the "Lord had respect to Abel" _first_, and then to his "offering," (Gen. iv. 4.)--Next, John saw "four beasts." The translation here is faulty, as noticed by many expositors. Different words in the original Greek,--not only different, but in some respects opposite in signification, ought not to be rendered by the same English word; for this tends to mislead the unlearned leader. He is thus bewildered instead of being enlightened. There are several beasts besides these, introduced as instructive symbols in this book. Two are mentioned in ch. xiii. 1, 11, altogether different from these,--so different as to be antagonistic. Instead of "beasts," they should have been called "animals" or "living beings;" for even the phrase "living _creatures_" hardly covers or conveys the whole import of the Greek word. The position of these "four animals" is worthy of special notice:--"in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne." How can this be? Well, if the "seats" and the "elders" occupying them are "round about the throne," in a segment of a circle, as viewed by John, then it will be readily perceived that the "animals" seen from the same quarter would appear to him as occupying a space forming a smaller segment of a circle between the elders and the throne. Thus we have the relative positions, (_a_) the throne, (_b_) the "four animals" next to the throne, and lastly, (_c_) the "four and twenty elders." The places occupied by these several parties are pregnant with scriptural instruction, as may appear when we come to the latter part of ch. 6.